Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009 (this is the day I wrote this blog).
Ni Hao everyone from the airplane flying from Nanjing to Harbin. I am sitting here with my friends Sally and Hope and we are flying towards the North East in China. It is nice to finally get a chance to write as we have been so busy over the past three days since Shanghai. I have been really enjoying the company of the teachers and amazing volunteers on this trip that we have been spending a lot of time together and by the end of the night I am too tired to write. Also during the day we have been having some really intense learning experiences and I have wanted to take some time to process what I have seen and heard before I share some of it with you here.
We arrived in Nanjing on July 6th by bus. En route we stopped at Tongli, the water village. There is a beautiful garden from the Qing dynasty surrounded by large pagodas and a huge pond filled with large gold fish. The sound of the cicada insects offers an interesting soundtrack to the beauty of the place. My friend Diana and I took some nice photographs there and then wandered down along one of the canals in the town to do some shopping. Everyone bargains in China so we took some time to do that too. We bought some beautiful embroidered wall hangings and because we bought two each and our friends Joseph and Flora bought two we got a great discount. They are handmade by the women in the village and are very authentic showing children flying kites. I really like them. As we wandered further down the side of the water we heard a young man playing a beautiful instrument that is a bit like an ocarina or flute/recorder. Our friend Andrew was in the process of choosing one to purchase and Diana and I were also intrigued by the designs on these handmade instruments and the haunting sounds they make when you blow into them. I guess in some ways they sound like recorders as you play them by covering the holes with your fingers. It was just about time for us to meet our group so we quickly negotiated a bargain and ran back to meet our group. It was so great to wander through the streets of Tongli. A very traditional town with a large stage in the centre where they perform Chinese opera and the streets are lined with little shops and Chinese lanterns. I really enjoyed it there and would love to go back some day.
As we have been travelling about each of the restaurants where we have eaten has offered a family style menu of soups, vegetable, tofu, egg, noodles and meat dishes, accompanied with rice all representing food from the different provinces in China. We have all been eating with chopsticks and seem to be getting better every meal. The food just keeps coming! We often serve our neighbors as is the tradition of the Chinese. We fill our bowls with rice and then add our meat and vegetables either on top of the rice or separate and then eat with our chopsticks. We’ve found some times that we think that the meal is over and then one more dish comes. The food has been fantastic! I have even tried some unique things like jellyfish, various types of tofu, chicken feet among other things. Sometimes the food is quite spicy but as we keep saying you have to try everything at least once.
I have truly been enjoying conversations about life and travel with this team! They are outstanding people with such a wealth of experiences. There are 5 people from Edmonton, 2 from Australia and about 20 from Toronto. Most of us our secondary teachers, but there are also elementary teachers, an academic dean, a playwright and some educational assistants. We have become quick friends, laugh a lot and are very supportive of each other. What more could you ask for… the roots of a life changing experience. So many things to learn and appreciate. We seem to find common ground despite our different backgrounds and experiences.
Back to our arrival to Nanjing. We arrived after about a 6.5 hour bus ride and stayed at the Holiday Inn Aqua City. It is a beautiful hotel within the walls of Nanking. Once we settled in we went to explore the night market at Fuzimiao. As we got to the street corner, we saw about 30 people dancing the jitterbug to music that was played on a loud radio. While I don’t profess to be a very good dancer, my friend Allan grabbed my hand and two me how to do the two -step. It was so much fun! It is awesome to see that this is how people spend their time outdoors together. When we got to the Market some of my friends got stamps made with carvings of their children and family members names. It was fun to hear my friend Moira help the carver figure out how to best choose the characters for their names. Later Allan and I walked around the market that is very lit up with lots of touristy shops. We grabbed a few Tsingtaos and were able to walk about on the street. There is no restriction to do this in China and considering the incredible humidity, it was quite refreshing. Fortunately we got back to the hotel just as the rains starting coming down and boy did it pour--all night and most of the next day with huge sounds of thunder and lightning flashes. It was quite a sight! Almost monsoon-like.
Nanjing was formerly known as Nanking and means Southern capital. It is the home of the memorial to Dr. Sun Yat Sen, founder of modern China. In July of 1937 the war began between Japan and the Chinese and beginning on December 13 the Japanese ransacked and massacred the people of Nanking, over 300,000 people in a 6 week period. Currently the city has a population of about 7 million people; 4 million in the city proper. It is divided into 10 districts and four counties, a few of which are under direct control of the city government. There is a wall that surrounds the city that was built during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, at that point it was one of the longest walls in the world, 43 miles long and 16 m in height.
It was fitting that we began our first full day in Nanking on July 7th, it is the 72nd anniversary of the invasion of the Marco Polo bridge which was a gunfire exchange that started the Japanese invasion of China which sparked the beginning of World War II in Asia. What is sad in Nanking is that the entire city was set on fire and so very little remains except for memorial sites.
We spent our first morning at the Nanking Memorial Museum which was built in three phases, the most recent addition in 2007. It is an outstanding museum which provides amazing displays which all have primary documents, first hand accounts, memorials and video which engage visitors in trying to understand the horror and tragedy of the Rape of Nanking. The location of the museum is right on top of one of the massed graves of the dead and so much excavation has been done and many bones of unknown people have been found and are displayed in the ground of the museum. There is a memorial hall that rings a bell and flashes a photo of victim of the massacre every 12 seconds. There are 7,000 faces that are shown on the screen every day. The exhibits attempt to how the massacre began as well as the various dimensions of the event including-the killing and torture, rape, burning and destruction of property and looting. Some of the materials looked familiar as they were included in Chinese American Journalist Iris Chang’s book THE RAPE OF NANKING that I read as part of my preparation for this trip. Nothing really prepares you to read and see and hear about such a tragedy on such a large scale. What is most amazing to me is how despite the fact that there is so much recorded evidence and survivors who testify to the experience that there are still many Japanese who deny that the atrocity even happened at Nanjing. The museum also features the work of courageous foreigners including John Rabe and Minnie Vautrin as well as the document produced by missionary John Magee. These individuals helped to create the International Safety zone to provide food, shelter and protection to many Chinese. The Chinese revere these individuals as heroes. At around 11 o’clock our entire team went to lay a wreath at the memorial at the museum. It was very moving as we went up and bowed three times to honour the lives of those who died. In the afternoon, we were able to walk out to the memorial mass grave and see the sites where people were killed which are now marked by stones inscribed with Chinese writing. There is even an area where the skulls still lie in the ground. It was a sobering experience to see this and made me think about my trip to the Killing Fields in Cambodia. One school teacher from Japan in acknowledging this event pilgrimages every year to bring 1,000 paper cranes in praying for peace and reconciliation. As we continued through the property, Diana, Allan, and I bought incense and flowers to lay at the memorial and we bowed three times to honour them. We also lowered a lotus candle to float as a memorial. I was very moved by this experience of being able to honour those who died. As we walked through the last section, there was a monument of a woman and the words peace. I am still processing all of what I saw at the museum and will continue to try to understand how I can teach all this to my students.
Yesterday morning, we went to the house of John Rabe, a german business man who was Chairman of the International Safety Zone. He was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of Chinese. They call him “a living Buddha”. The curator of the museum spoke very eloquently about the materials in the museum and the importance of this man. We also heard the testimonials of Mr. and Mrs. Lee. Mr. Lee was under the protection of John Rabe as he lived next door to him before the Japanese occupation and is forever grateful for Rabe’s work in providing what he and his family needed. His wife was of a higher social class and because she lived outside the safety zone saw much of the killing and destruction. The two married after the war—a beautiful couple. It was my turn to offer the gifts I brought from Canada, a beautiful tie and scarf with maple leaves on them. They loved the gifts. Mrs. Lee quickly wrapped her scarf around her neck and I tied the tie onto Mr. Lee. They were so wonderful and comfortable in sharing their stories. They are lucky to have survived. We had a chance to ask them questions through our interpreter Joseph. That was very important experience for me that I won’t soon forget.
In the afternoon we went to Swallow-like Creek which is the site of where over 10,000 Chinese ran from the city gates to the Yanzi River attempting to escape the Japanese in quick pursuit. All of them were killed and many of them jumped to their deaths in trying to get across the Yanzi river to safety, but tragically they didn’t make it. Their lives are memorialized there.
We have two documentarians who are filming our trip and each of us has been asked to tell our stories about how we got involved and the importance of sharing this history with our students as well as to try and explain the impact of this trip on us personally. It was at Swallow-like Cliff that I did my interview. It was interesting to think as my friend Tiffany asked me questions about how to tell my students about this experience. She asked if I would sing something at the end of the interview and so in trying to think of what was most fitting, I sang the words of Sarah McLachlan’s song, “I will remember you, will you remember me, don’t let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories.” Words which I think in some ways capture what I hope I will be able to do in honouring the memory of the victims and survivors of Nanking.
The last part of our day was a trip to the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, founder of modern China. We climbed up the 392 steps through the three pagodas and up to the top. What an amazing piece of architecture! A fitting end to an interesting day.
I recognize that in sharing a lot of this information about Nanjing may be difficult to read, but I hope that it will give you insight into some of what I have seen and learned. There is still lots to be processed and learned as we continue this trip.
I hope this message finds you all happy and well and enjoying your summers wherever you are.
I think I am going to have a nap now, as we have been having so much fun being together and the learning about the impact of the war in China has been very enriching, meaning that I haven’t been getting as much sleep. Such is life!
I think we will be landing soon in any event!
Don’t worry I am not sending this from the plane-wouldn’t want to interfere with flight signals.
Thinking of you all. Wishing you could see all this. So many more stories to share and tell. I will update again in a few days.
Much love,
katy
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0624s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Diane
non-member comment
Sounds absolutely incredible Katy!